At the beginning of 2022, I picked twenty-two projects that I wanted to work on during the year. I knew that I would never finish all twenty-two, but this is my process. By picking a bunch of projects, I keep my momentum going and I get to see what sticks. Let’s see what projects I actually finished in 2022!

1. Knit Christmas Stockings: I never got around to this and this ambition has actually become an in-joke between Pippa and me. This is what I learned: at this stage of my life, the last quarter of the year is insanely busy – Soccer! Halloween! Julian’s birthday! School carnival! Thanksgiving! Christmas! – and I have minimal time for Christmas crafting. If I want to make Christmas stockings, I have to start much earlier in the year. For example, January.

2. Catch Up On Family Photo Albums: Oh look, another project that I did not even begin. But I have been uploading and organizing my photos on Shutterfly, so that’s a start – right?

3. Set the Kids Up With Their Own Bedrooms: YES! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I moved Pippa into her own bedroom in January, and both kids’ bedrooms have come along nicely. Julian now has his own desk, and both kids have soft rugs. 

4. Paint the Kitchen Cupboards: Yes! This took a lot longer than I expected (closer to two months than the three school days I budgeted) but I finished painting them in early summer and I loooove the results. It was an ass shit ton of work but I’d do it again in a heart beat.

5. “Finish” Decluttering: I made progress! Huge progress! I would say I am 80% done with this project. I just need to finish our basement. I enjoy decluttering so much that this will be an ongoing practice for me. Also, I’m much less interested in stuff now that I’ve gotten rid of so much. I could really write a book about decluttering, but let’s keep going so I actually finish this blog post.

6. Deep Clean the House: The house is clean but hasn’t been as deeply cleaned as I would like. Once I catch up with decluttering, I’ll tackle this. Hello, Spring Cleaning 2023, I’m looking at you, wink wink.

7. Publish My First Novel: HELL YES, I published Confessions of an Imposter Room Mom in June 2022. 

8. Write the Rough Draft of My Second Room Mom Novel: I finished this! I am deep into revisions. Working title: The Great Preschool Fiasco. I finished my first round of revisions earlier this week, so now I am going to take off the rest of 2022 and enjoy the winter break with my children.

9. Go Boogie Boarding Five Times: I only got around to doing this once, but it was so much fun. 

10. Get a Ping-pong Table: Negative, and upon further reflection, I do not actually want a ping-pong table. Or rather, I want a ping-pong table in theory, but only if we had an enormous house with a game room. We just don’t have space for one at this time. Sure, I could get a collapsible table and put it in the garage, but that would cramp up the space and be a major production, and then the ping-pong table would be a source of guilt. Plus, can you imagine the ways my children would get hurt by a collapsible ping-pong table in the garage? The Novak family really doesn’t need another reason to visit urgent care, thank you very much. I am, however, glad I put this on my 22 in ’22 list because now I can let that desire go.

11. Read 100 Books for Myself: I am going to hit this goal by the end of the year. I’ve already read 101 books this year, but that includes Matilda and The Christmas Pig, which are books I read aloud to the kids. I’m nearly done with three other books though, so I’ll probably actually read 101 or 102 books for myself by the end of 2022.  

12. Cook with Mushrooms – try twelve new recipes: I tried two or three new recipes. I would like to try something along these lines in 2023 again. I adore mushrooms and need to get over this mental block I have with cooking with them.

13. Use My Button Maker: Yes! I have used my button maker plenty of times. I made buttons for all the teachers at our elementary school at the beginning of the year, and most recently, I used it for Pippa’s class party. All the kids got to make buttons to give to their parents for Christmas. The button maker was one of those things that was intimidating at first but once I took it out and watched some YouTube tutorials, it was really quite easy to use.

14. Get A New Enamel Pin Every Month: Mission accomplished! I adore the collection I now have of enamel pins and will continue collecting one enamel pin each month in 2023. I have not yet ordered my pin for December. I meant to buy a Christmas-y pin but forgot to order it in time, but now I get to ponder and muse (and maybe obsess a bit) and pick Something Spectacular.

15. Learn How To Play The Super Mario Bros. Theme On The Piano: I got the sheet music and played it once. That’s a start, right? Julian ended up claiming the book of Super Mario sheet music as his own. He loves playing piano and his goal is to play the music in the Super Mario Bros. book, so now I don’t want to learn how to play this music because it will steal some of his glory. #Motherhood

16. Create Another Graphics Heavy Book: This didn’t happen. My muse wasn’t interested.

17. Learn A Tap Dance Routine To Footloose: This one completely fell off my radar.

18. Decorate With Pompoms: Ditto.

19. Go To Hogwarts At Universal With Pippa: This didn’t happen. Instead, our family of four went to Disneyland for Julian’s birthday. My sister and I have secretly scheduled a trip to Hogwarts for January 3. Julian is coming as well because we’ve finished the fifth Harry Potter book. So I guess I’m missing this goal by three days. Oh, well!

20. Study Carl Jung: I actually started this! And then abandoned it.

21. Put Family Photos in Seasonal Frames: Nope. I didn’t have the bandwidth for this one, but it’s still something I would like to eventually do.

22. Get A Posh Trash Can For Our Kitchen: Yes! Nathan hates it but I love it. I even get a thrill from cleaning it.

Okay, so let’s review: I finished eight of my 22 in ’22 projects. Not bad! I also made significant progress on Decluttering the House, and the trip to Hogwarts is on my calendar.

A few lessons I learned:

• Our house does not have room for a ping-pong table, so getting one would actually detract from my happiness.
• I need to do Christmas crafting during the first nine months of the year.
• I can plan and scheme, but I can’t control my muse.
• Mushrooms are delicious.